Bib with tray cover



P 11, 1956 M. c. LIPSCOMB 2,762,053

BIB WITH TRAY COVER Filed July 20. 1953 INVENTOR.

12 \mm KW N v m k QM ATTORNEY;

United States Patent BIB WITH TRAY COTR Matilda C. Lipscomb, Litfle Rock, Ark. Application July 20, 1953, Serial No. 369,019 1 Claim. (Cl. 2-49) This invention relates to a cover garment which can be worn by children, while eating, for the purpose of protecting the childs clothes and the tray of the high chair from having food spilled on them. The garment is made with an integral construction so that the bib portion merges with the tray cover portion and eliminates the possibility of food being spilled in the childs lap, or falling down behind the tray onto the floor.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved cover garment, of the character indicated, which is more practical than those of the prior art. Although the invention provides an elastic for holding the garment on the tray of a high chair, the gathers produced by the elastic are confined to the portion of the garment beyond the front and sides of the high chair tray. It is a feature of the construction that there are no gathers in the material between the child and the tray. Thus, the portions of the cover garment, on which food can be spilled, are all smooth and can be cleaned by merely wiping the surface or dipping the garment in water.

Another object of the invention is to provide a cover garment which is economical to manufacture. Sleeves are provided by merely tacking the corners of wide, rearwardly-folded straps, and the bib and tray cover portions of the garment are made with reverse curves that permit the garment blanks to be cut from bolt material with a minimum of waste.

One feature of the invention relates to a construction whereby the cover garment protects the arms as well as the tray of the high chair, and another feature of the construction provides a deep pocket behind the tray cover portion of the garment, and over the childs lap when in use, for catching spilled milk or other liquid.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear or be pointed out as the description proceeds.

In the drawing, forming a part hereof, in which like reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the views:

Figure 1 is a front view of a cover garment having a bib portion and a tray cover portion made in accordance with this invention;

Figure 2 is a sectional view through the cover garment of this invention when worn by a child with the tray cover portion placed over a high chair tray;

Figure 3 is a plan view of the garment shown in Figure 2, the view being taken along the line 3-3 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a greatly enlarged, fragmentary sectional view, taken on the line 44 of Figure 1; and

Figure 5 is a diagrammatic view showing the way in which the cover garments are cut from bolt or sheet stock from which they are made.

The cover garment shown in Figure 1 has a bib portion with wide shoulder straps 11 on opposite sides of a neck recess 12. The shoulder straps 11 are folded rearwardly and tacked by stitching 13 to the side edges of the bib portion. Experience has shown that this tacking of the outward corners of the free ends of the shoulder straps 12 is sufiicient to provide sleeves for the cover garment, and permits a closer and hence more protective fit across the childs chest.

The garment is preferably made of waterproof material which is limp and which has a smooth surface, at least on its upper side. Many of the plastic materials are suitable for the purpose, such as chlorinated rubber, and vinyl chloride with other ingredients.

The cover garment has binding 15 around its entire edge, including the edges of the neck recess 12, one portion of the binding which extends to the corners of the neck recess 12 is run beyond the ends of the recess to form ties 16 by which the cover garment is held on the child.

The cover garment also has a tray cover portion 20 with an elastic band 22 extending across the front and down both sides of the tray cover portion. This elastic band is attached'to the underside of the material from which the tray cover portion is made. Ordinary machine stitching, extending through the plastic, or other material of the cover garment, has been found satisfactory. The elastic band 22 is sewed to the tray cover portion 20 with the elastic in a stretched condition so that when it returns to its normal retracted condition, it pulls the front and side edges of the tray cover portion of the garment into gathers 24, allowing this portion to fit snugly over high chair trays of various sizes and shapes.

When the tray cover portion 20 is placed over a tray 25 of a high chair 26, the elastic 22 is stretched and at least some of the gathers are eliminated. A comparison of Figures 1 and 2 shows the way in which the tray cover portion 20 is expanded when placed over the tray 25.

It is a feature of the invention that the gathers 24 are located under the front and sides of the tray 25, and that there are no gathers extending across the cover garment at the rear of the tray or between the child and the tray. As previously explained, this leaves all of the surfaces, on which food can be spilled, free of gathers in which liquid or other food could lodge and be diflicult to remove.

Toward the rear of the tray cover portion of the garment, the end portions of the elastic band 22 converge toward one another at locations 27, shown in Figure 5. This figure shows the cover garment spread out flat with the elastic band 22 stretched and all of the gathers eliminated.

This construction, with the elastic band 22 extending under the sides and the rearward corners of the tray 25, causes the sides of the bib portion, just behind the tray 25, to flare outwardly over arms 30 of the high chair, thus providing protection for the arms.

The bib portion 10 is long enough to extend downwardly and form a deep basinlike pocket 32 between the side edges of the garment and immediately behind the tray 25. This deep pocket holds food, milk, water or other liquid that is spilled and that flows rearwardly from the tray. Without this pocket 32, some or all of this liquid would run down on the floor, even if the bib were wide enough to protect the childs clothes.

The pocket 32 is formed because of the extra length of the bib portion 10 and also because of the way in which the rearward ends of the elastic band 22 pull the side edges inward and make the side edges of the bib portion flare upwardly and outwardly immediately behind the tray 25.

Figure 5 shows the shape of the blanks from which the cover garment is made. The front of the tray cover portion is large enough and preferably curved in order to accommodate it better to high chair trays of different shapes. The side edges of the blanks, in the region near the rearward end of the tray cover portion, continue the curvature of the front beyond a maximum width so that thezfidge portion will converge slightly toward'the middle level'of the garment.

The shape ofthe side edges is symmetrical above an intermediate point 34 for asubstantial distance so that the blanks, turned in ,opposite directions as, shown in Figure 5 can be cut from a piece of sheet o'rb'olt material 36 witha minimum offwaste. The stippled areasin Fig,

5 "show the portion of a bib which .-cover.the arms of'the-z A'cover garment for protecting the I clothes of'a child and a tray of a, high' chair from spilled food, said garment "having' a body including a .bib portion, and'tray cover portion, said tray cover portionbeing wider than the bib portion and having front and side edges, an elastic band secured to the tray cover portion along'and adjacent to said front and both side edges of the .tray cover. portion,

for gathering said front and said side edges, the bib por- 4 tion-'- and tray cover portion of the garment merg ing with one another along a smooth continuous surface, the elastic bandhaving end portions that converge toward one another and terminate within the body of the garment at the region where the bib portion and t-ray cover portion merge, and the ends of the elastic band being spaced from one another by most of the width of the tray cover portion but by a distance substantially less than the width of the bib'portion'of the garment so that the bib portion has its 'sides beyondthe-elastic band, the bib portion and tray cover portion being constructed of a single sheet of fi'at- -materia.lwhe rebyit can belaid out on a planesurface for cleaning;

References Cited3inthe file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 590,991 Lenhart Oct. 5, 1897 2,321,670 Gibson June 15, 1943 2,445,850 Gibson July 27, 1948 2,457,725 Rhowrnine Dec. 28,1948 2,532,932 Neiswander Dec. 5, 1950 2,594,053 McKewen Apr. 22, 1952 

